For the second year in a row, St. Herman’s Society for Orthodox Ecology —a student-run association of St. Vladimir’s Seminary—ushered in the new church year with events focused upon the relationship between humanity and the rest of God’s creation.
Visiting hierarch His Eminence The Most Rev. Melchisedek, archbishop of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania, Orthodox Church in America (OCA), blessed a bald cypress tree that was recently planted on the front lawn.
The tree, which enjoys boggy ground, received not only a sprinkling of holy water by the archbishop, but also a good deal of rainwater from a cloudburst that soaked the ground, causing the undeterred hierarch to have his mantiya lifted above the wet grass during the blessing.
Afterwards, seminarians and guests celebrated the Akathist “Glory to God for All Things” in Three Hierarchs Chapel, with His Eminence presiding.
The gathering then moved to The Metropolitan Philip Auditorium to hear Dr. Elizabeth Theokritoff lecture on: “Cosmic Liturgy and the Problems of Human ‘Priesthood.’” She described how the label “priest”—often used metaphorically to describe humanity’s role in creation—might engender an anthropocentric view that denies the rest of creation participation in the “cosmic liturgy.” Drawing upon the writings of church fathers, especially St. Maximus the Confessor, Dr. Theokritoff presented the entire universe as a worshiping body, with creation’s “laity” complementing humanity’s “priest.”
